First Republican national convention ends 1856

History.Com(This Day in History) ^ | 06/19/2019 | staff

[Kid Shelleen]

---SNIP--- The Republicans, who called for the abolition of slavery in all U.S. territories, rapidly gained supporters in the North, and in 1856 their first presidential candidate, John Fremont, won 11 of the 16 Northern states. By 1860, the majority of Southern states were publicly threatening secession if a Republican won the presidency. On November 6, 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president over a divided Democratic Party, and six weeks later South Carolina formally seceded from the Union. Within six more weeks, five other Southern states had followed South Carolina’s lead.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Wow what a pivotal moment. And a reminder that our country, our party had weathered through the toughest of challenges.

[FewsOrange]

Republican Party Platform of 1856

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1856

Resolved: That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign powers over the Territories of the United States for their government; and that in the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism—Polygamy, and Slavery.

Republican Party Platform of 1860

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1860

That the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom: That, as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that “no persons should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law,” it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it; and we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States.

[WashingtonFire]

If we’d had a leader of Trump’s ability we would have ended slavery without the need for 800,000 young men to die.

[Vigilanteman]

I know why Polygamy was put into the 1856 platform but not sure why it was taken out of the 1860 platform.

[Vigilanteman]

Even more interesting is plank #4 of the platform which Lincoln would violate just 11 months later:

4. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially the right of each state to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of powers on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.

A more appropriate response to Ft. Sumter would have been to send a contingent of marines to retake it and closed Charleston harbor, not to invade Virginia.

But, yes, that is 20-20 hindsight.

[TBP]

Retaking Fort Sumter wasn’t the point.

[Vigilanteman]

As you may know, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina had steadfastly refused to join the Confederacy until Lincoln made the ill fated decision to invade Virginia.

The administration actually thought the presence of union troops would inspire southern unionists to rally around the flag. Instead, it steeled the resolve of the rebels to drag them into the confederacy.

There were enough cooler heads in Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland to prevent them from following the same sorry path, but a deescalation of the Fort Sumter situation might have prevented a catastrophic war and given the unionist sentiment in the south a little more time to organize.

[SeeSharp]

You do realize that “territory” was not a reference to existing states?

[SeeSharp]

“...and given the unionist sentiment in the south a little more time to organize.”

Not to mention the constitutionalist sentiment in the north.

[Jacquerie]

A more appropriate response to Lincoln’s election was to not attack Fort Sumter in the first place. It was the casus belli that Lincoln looked for, and which unfortunately changed forever the state/federal government relationship for the worse.

[Vigilanteman]

Absolutely agree. Hotheads in South Carolina were so sure it would be a short war with them emerging victorious. Each side grossly underestimated the resolve of the other.